


Hairy, Lairy, Scary

by Boxcult (Brynnen), Brynnen



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Friendship, Fun, Gen, Halloween, Halloween Costumes, Party, Tracer is a deplorable lightweight, Winston and Tracer are bffs, fun until it's not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-04
Updated: 2018-06-04
Packaged: 2019-05-18 07:43:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14848583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brynnen/pseuds/Boxcult, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brynnen/pseuds/Brynnen
Summary: Tracer persuades Winston to come to the Halloween party with her, not realising it will reopen old wounds.A spiked punch of fun, court and light angst.





	Hairy, Lairy, Scary

Tracer kicked her heels idly against the leg of the bench on which she sat. 'I dunno, Win. You know I'm always up fer a party, but gettin' all gussied up just to eat me body weight in sweeties and get trollied seems like a lot of work.'

Winston looked at her over his spectacles. 'Weren't you meant to be trying to persuade me to actually attend this party?'

  
Oh yeah, Ana had told her to get Winston to come, using force if necessary. Tracer wasn't sure how force was meant to help - like the joke went, a five hundred pound gorilla could sleep wherever he liked. Even if that was down in his labs while everyone else was at a stupid costume party.

She giggled, embarrassed to have lost her thread. 'Ooops?'

Winston snorted and gave his friend an indulgent smile. 'Well, while you think about that can you hold these wires for me please?'

She accepted the plastic-wrapped wires and held them carefully out of the way as he disappeared into the guts of some new kind of ground-vehicle drone. One dexterous foot held onto the workbench as he leant further in, grunting with effort.

A glimmer of an idea formed in Tracer's mind. 'How d'you feel about being a mad scientist?'

'I will be a mad scientist fairly soon if you don't stop tugging on those wires as I'm trying to connect them.' He replied drily.

Tracer groaned at him, but moved her hands to introduce some slack into the wires. 'No, I meant for the party! Like in those cheesy old horror films!

'Wouldn't that be a retrograde step for representation of STEM?'

'Winston, it's a party, not a ruddy ad campaign! It'd be fun, you'd get to ham it up, play the whole "Those fools said it couldn't be done, but I'll show them, I'll show them all!" thing you totally would love to do and all you'd need was a labcoat and some goggles!' Tracer gasped as another thought occurred to her. 'I could be the Monster to your Frankenstein!'

Winston emerged from the vehicle and frowned at her. 'Isn't Frankenstein's monster meant to be a huge, brutish-looking creature?'

'Which means it'll be funnier when we do it!' Tracer replied cheerfuly. 'Can you lend me some bolts? The make-up for this is gonna be ace!'

Winston sighed and made a helpless gesture, but Tracer just knew he was mentally queuing up a whole playlist of cheesy films to watch and enjoy for 'inspiration' purposes.

Tracer grinned. 'I'll get the popcorn in!'

 

Winston adjusted his cravat again as they got to the main doors of the big event room. Beside him, Tracer leant forward and knocked on it.

'Trick or Treat!' She yelled exuberantly as Ana opened it. The sniper didn't even flinch.

'You could have just come straight in...' Ana murmured, taking in their costumes with an approving look.

'Aw, you didn't come as Nelson?' Tracer remarked, then leaned in, lowering her voice conspiratorially. 'I bet Rein would have happily been your Hardy!' She punctuated that statement with a kissy noise that made Ana growl threateningly, but her eye sparkled with good humour so Tracer just cackled and scampered into the party.

As they drank deeply of the fruity punch Tracer and Winston tried to guess at the other members' costumes. 'Is Genji dressed as Sentai Warrior Xtra Fight?' Tracer tried to recall the character's correct rather long-winded name.

'Oh, Lucio is gangster - like those ancient film ones!' Winston was excited to recognise the costume with its spats, a fedora and a sharp pinstriped waistcoat and trousers. The DJ looked very dapper and beside him Efi had chosen a costume from the same period - a sapphire-blue flapper dress. Together they were trying to master the steps of a Charleston.

Tracer let out a delighted laugh as she recognised Mei's costume; Dr Grace Fan, the oceonographer main character of the hit disaster movie 'Ocean of Fire' - of course she'd found a scientist to dress up as!

'Another scientist?' Zarya remarked, offering them the plate she was munching mini-cookies from. Winston couldn't place her costume, some neon-coloured, oddly-styled workout clothes. It was a striking effect on the powerfully built woman.

'I was surprised Efi didn't pick a scientist to dress up as too, but she's having so much with Lucio.' He smiled at how much the pair of them were having.

'And Frankenstein's monster, yes? The most adorable monster I've seen.' Zarya chuckled at Tracer, who didn't notice too busy teasing McCree and Hanzo.

'Ah, I'd better...' Winston hurried off to rescue his friend before Hanzo lost his temper and summoned a brace of dragons to deal with her.

'Save me from the big scary oni, Winnie!' She seemed loopier than usual and Winston realised he felt pleasantly relaxed - the punch must have been spiked.

'Justice the Cowboy?' Winston distracted the pair from the imminent disagreement by guessing at McCree's costume.

'Howdy.' McCree tipped his ten-gallon hat. His usual pistol had been replaced by the looped lasso the children's tv character favoured and he'd switched his beloved serape for a red waistcoat. Frankly he didn't look that much different to uual, unlike Junkrat, who had enthusiastically dived into the theme making a spactacular, singed vampire. The vast, bandage-wrapped bulk of Road-Hog trailed after him, leaving empty canapé trays in his wake.

Pleasant thought it all was, and Winston could appreciate how much effort had been put into the party and costumes by everyone, the noise and crowdedness were starting to get to him and Lena was already alarmingly inebriated. Her actual capacity for alcohol did not match her perception of her tolerance.

'Cursh yer sudden but inevitable betrayal, Kahlua!' Lena shook her fist at the ceiling as Winston gently guided her out to the veranda.

'Lena, you're all of a hundred pounds soaking wet, maybe pace yourself.' He searched for the right phrase. 'Think session, not binge.'

'Oi, I'm eight stone ten, you cheeky bastard! I could do with a breath of fresh air though. Oh, hi Satya!' She lowered her voice on seeing the architect in deference to her preference for lower volume.

Satya emerged from the shadows, beautifully dressed in a floor-length gown and elbow-length gloves. Tracer gave a low appreciative whistle for the flawless replica of superspy Amrit Kaur's Lunar Ball outfit. She'd loved that comic, Tracer was just surprised Satya had read it too.

Satya looked the pair of them up and down, visibly considering all of the ways their costumes could be interpreted and finally concluding, 'Isn't that a little on the nose, given the origins of your peculiar abilities, Tracer?'

Tracer felt pale under the thick layer of theatrical make-up and her stomach dropped.

'She didn't mean it that way, I'm sure.' Winston hurried to reassure her, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. Satya looked perplexed and consternated by the reaction.

This was neither the time nor the place, but Winston had never really admitted this before, so he concentrated on Tracer. 'I'm so proud of you, how you've dealt with your new powers and accepted uncomplainingly the consequences of my hubris.' She was far stronger than anyone gave her credit for and he loved the tiny human the more for her courage.

Tracer wanted to cry at the guilt in Winston's voice. 'It's not your fault, Win!'' She hugged him tightly, tears soaking into his fur as she tried to dissolve the guilt he still carried.

He held her head against his shoulder, massive hand cradling her fragile skull tenderly. 'If not mine, then whose?'

'No one's Winston. Not everything happens for a reason, you can't predict every eventuality and you saved me. We're just two gone-wrong science projects in a world that doesn't know what to make of us.'

'Oh Lena.' He tightened his hug, then hastily relaxed his hold when Lena went 'glurk'.

'Sorry Win, I didn't think these costumes through.' Tracer stepped back and grimaced when she saw the patch of green make-up smeared across the shoulder of Winston's labcoat. She hadn't planned on the party getting this emotional.

'Neither did I, so we're even there.... You know, Reinhardt made far too many cheesecakes again. We could raid the kitchen and gorge ourselves while watching the cheesy horror marathon the movie channel was meant to be running.'

Tracer wiped her eyes, dislodging more of the carefully-applied make-up. Given that Emily hadn't been able to make it tonight and she was drunk already, there wasn't much reason to stay. She'd ask D.Va for the photos tomorrow to check out the costumes she hadn't seen.

'Sounds smashing! D'you thint there's any of that lemon meringue pie left? Rein's lemon meringue is the best!'

'Shall we find out?'

Tracer gave Winston a grandiose bow and gestured for him to lead the way. 'Let's.'


End file.
